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Monday, August 24, 2009

According to reports published about the Islamic Republic’s prisons, demonstrators arrested in the recent uprisings, particularly those in Kahrizak Prison have been gang-raped and the prison guards have put them under medieval tortures. Many of the detainees, female or male, have died in rape rooms as a result of being repeatedly raped, due to rupture of uterus or rectum and intestinal bleeding. Still others, in or out of prison, are suffering from the resulting physical and psychological traumas of these acts of violence. We know that the torture and raping of prisoners are not confined to Kahrizak and to the recent events. Executions and murder of prisoners, rape and torture in the Islamic regime’s prisons are as old the regime itself.

The Islamic Republic is denying that rape is happening in its prisons because they fear facing the people in Iran and the public opinion in Western countries. The spread of the news of the rape and torture of the recent detainees has led to a wave of disgust and hatred against the Islamic regime in Iran and across the world. Exposure of and the fight against rape and torture in prisons are important tasks for the freedom demanding movement of the people of Iran.

In the prisons of the Islamic Republic many women have been raped and murdered and those who have survived are now suffering from severe physical and psychological injuries. Zahra Bani Yaghoub, Azar Al Cana'an and Roya Toloui are some of these people. But also detained young boys and adolescents have been raped by the Islamic regime of Iran. Students who were arrested for protesting have been raped, or sexually abused with objects such as bottles.

We condemn these crimes. We have to prevent such atrocities by widespread protests. In this revolutionary situation we should make sure that the victims of these medieval tortures are able to expose these crimes through their testimonies and indictments. We will publish the accounts and cases of these terrible crimes and submit them all to relevant international organisations, legal bodies and committees against torture. We will not allow this crime in Iran to be forgotten as it has happened in Yugoslavia, Vietnam, Bangladesh or Japan through the passing of time or for it to become a taboo to speak about.

The immediate demands of our campaign are as follows:

1. We demand that torture and rape by the Islamic Republic be condemned as crimes against humanity;

2. We demand that those responsible for and those carrying out the rape, torture, murder and violence in the prisons of the Islamic Republic in recent times and over the last thirty years be put on trial;

3. We demand that all the torturers, interrogators and rapists in the prisons of the Islamic Republic be publicly identified;

4. We demand the release of all political prisoners and the closing down of all public and secret prisons and detention centres;

5. We demand the medical treatment of all prisoners who have been victims of torture and rape, and the provision of the highest possible medical care and treatment facilities for their physical and psychological rehabilitation;

6. We demand the abolition of the death penalty and stoning and the revoking of the Islamic Republic's penal code and the punishments contained therein;

7. We demand the recognition of the right to life and citizens’ immunity against any physical or psychological abuse;

8. We demand a system of justice in which violation of the human body and mind, child abuse and violence against women is regarded as a more severe crime with more severe penalties than crimes against property and property rights.

Join our campaign! This campaign belongs to all freedom-demanding people regardless of border and gender distinctions. Help us to expose and follow up the recent crimes. We will be informing people in our subsequent announcements about planned demonstrations, meetings and campaign actions.

Monday, August 03, 2009

Since July 27, we have had one person in Trafalgar Square’s Northern Terrace (London) every day from 1800-1830 to show their solidarity with the people of Iran. This past week, academic Marzieh Asqari, Iranian Secular Society head Fariborz Pooya, human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, Professor Jack Cohen, labour activist Alfonso Cuiffini, ex-political prisoner Mersedeh Ghaedi and political activist Jalil Jalili were there. You can see photos and film footage of their actions in front of the National Gallery on our blog, which is updated daily: http://iransolidarity.blogspot.com.

If you would like to contribute to these daily acts during the next 365 days, contact us. You would need to stand alone, be over 16 years of age, and spend the half hour doing whatever you’d like to show your support and solidarity. You can speak, do something silently, hold something up that you have prepared and brought with you, read a poem, show a painting, sing, wear a Neda mask, do an act... There will always be another volunteer there to provide support, distribute Iran Solidarity leaflets, and photograph and or film your action. To take part in one of the daily actions or volunteer to help us organise them, just call or email us.

If you do not live in London and want to take part or organise acts of solidarity in other cities contact us so we can help you. You can also organise a flash mob that can highlight the situation in Iran, set up information tables or mobilise support for our campaign. You can set up Iran Solidarity groups at your schools and universities, neighbourhoods and workplaces – similar to the anti-apartheid groups that helped get rid of racial apartheid in South Africa. Iran Solidarity Vancouver in Canada has already been launched on July 31 and others have contacted us about setting up branches in their localities.

Moreover, you can sign up to Iran Solidarity if you haven’t already done so and get others to do so, volunteer your time and skills, donate and raise funds or help organise speaking tours and public meetings.

We have a responsibility and duty to unite to support a hugely important movement in Iran that will help the people of Iran and the world in heralding a new dawn.